Madrid, October 2: Rain cannot dampen Urdiales’ mastery

Diego Urdiales in a natural to his second bull

The weather forecast for this weekend in Madrid was not good, and by the time the first of today’s Alcurrucén bulls was dragged out of the arena, the bullring of Las Ventas was awash with water, the centre of the plaza a windswept lake on a bed of sand.

The corrida had started under cloud and blue sky, the plaza some three-quarters full, and Diego Urdiales, called out to take saludos before the first bull came in, had performed a master class except with the sword. The animal had appeared hesitant at first and not turning for re-encounters, but Diego gave it a couple of nice verónicas and a superb media verónica before it went to the picador and a quite of excellent chicuelinas afterwards. Fortes tried a quite of chicuelinas and tafalleras, only to fall during the second tanda and narrowly escape a goring. After some fine banderillas from his cuadrilla, Urdiales set about the faena with half-kneeling doblones before straightening up for derechazos, trincherazos and pases de pecho, the muletazos relaxed, almost effortless, the crowd’s olés (first heard in the capework) ringing out once again. Better still were the naturales, Diego standing close to the bull, the muleta leading the animal past, then falling away. Suddenly, the heavens opened, a true cloudburst, the bulk of the spectators heading for the exits while Diego continued his calm artistry down on the increasingly wet sand. An ear would have been the riojano’s but for his initial pinchazo and the crowd’s preoccupation with the weather.

Urdiales in a verónica and natural with his first alcurrucén

With the wind scurrying mini-waves of water across the arena, it was announced that the corrida had been “temporarily” suspended.  I couldn’t imagine it ever re-starting, but, half an hour later, that is what occurred, the ring not in optimum condition but miraculously drained of most of the rainwater.

Fortes began well with his capework to his first bull

The crowd funnelled back to their seats to see a promising start from Fortes – exquisite  verónicas and chicuelinas – the conditions perhaps assisting toreo con temple. The bull charged keenly to the horse, as  did all of today’s alcurrucenes, a peón rather than Fortes leading it in for its second vara. The promise continued with a fine quite of verónicas and tafalleras from Christian Parejo and Fortes dedicated to the tendidos. The malagueño began well with half-kneeling templados muletazos, pases de pecho, a slow trinchera and a slower still cambio de mano. However, two desarmes dissolved things and some more fine derechazos and a closing series of bernadinas couldn’t recover the faena, which ended with a pinchazo, aviso and a half-sword, the bull chasing its fleeing matador across the plaza and very nearly catching him, Javier Gómez Pascual being roundly censured by spectators for not performing a quite to save his jefe. Silence followed after the arrastre.

Christian Parejo in a derechazo to his first bull (above) and (below) on his way to a tossing in the kill

Christian Parejo drew the only two four-year-olds in today’s string, meeting the first with well-performed delantales.  Diego Urdiales confirmed the bull’s fine qualities with a lovely brief quite of verónicas. After dedicating the faena to a spectating Mario Navas, whose injury (together with a strong showing by Christian here in August) had brought Parejo into this corrida, the gaditano tried to cite his bull from a similar distance to which it had charged to the picador, but, where capework was concerned, this animal really need to be cited close to. Parejo eventually secured passes from beside the line of charge, getting caught midway through the faena and then again, more seriously, at its end, Christian throwing himself over the horns for the kill and getting tossed as a result, his taleguilla torn open but no apparent flesh wound. He won applause for his efforts.

Derechazo from Diego Urdiales to his second bull

Although a keen charger to the horse, the fourth bull was manso, turning away from the capote at one point and taking up a querencia by the toriles. There was little capework until a quite of exquisite verónicas heralded another Urdiales masterclass with the muleta. After the matador had dedicated to the plaza, he embarked on a faena of impressively beautiful short series, carefully positioning himself for each and aborting those that weren’t to his liking.  Again, a potential ear was lost with a pinchazo, estocada and descabello, Diego taking saludos instead, but his broad smile as he returned to the callejón, showed that the 51-year-old veteran had thoroughly enjoyed his afternoon in Madrid.

The rain had started again, lighter this time but enough to send a sizable number of people, apparently unconcerned about missing the last two bulls, to the exits. In fact, they didn’t miss much. Fortes tried hard in the faena with his second animal, but had trouble rematando his passes satisfactorily and achieved little apart from one sequence of three stretching derechazos as the bull charged past. He killed with an off-centre media estocada and four descabellos, receiving silence while more sodden people opted to leave.

The last alcurrucén was the worst of the string, weak, reluctant to come forward and sometimes halting mid-pass. Parejo, who had hoped for more from this afternoon, crossed to extract charges this time, but ended up performing arrimón until he took the crowd’s advice and killed, suffering a Calvary with four or five pinchazos and several descabellos that resulted in an aviso and silence.